Russian gyrotron successfully tested for Iter

18 May 2015

Positive test results have opened the way for Russia to mass produce the gyrotron equipment it has designed for the Iter fusion reactor.

A gyrotron is a high powered linear beam vacuum tube that generates millimeter-wave electromagnetic waves by the cyclotron resonance of electrons in a strong magnetic field. Russia is to supply eight of the 24 gyrotrons intended for the Iter project.

Under a procurement arrangement signed by the Iter Russia Domestic Agency and the Iter Organization in June 2012, the Institute of Applied Physics of the Russian Academy of Sciences and the joint stock company Gikom were contracted to manufacture and deliver the equipment to the Cadarache site of the Iter project.

The agency said on 15 May that the Russian equipment was tested between 11 and 15 May at Gikom's facility in Nizhny Novgorod in the presence of Iter representatives. Other organizations involved in development of the equipment included the Kurchatov Institute and the joint stock company RTSoft.

"The tests that have been carried out are a major component of the final acceptance of the project system, based on which the Russian side officially has the right to start serial production of this component of the Iter [project]," the agency said. "The prototype of the Russian gyrotron system passed these tests by demonstrating, in full compliance with the international organization, its readiness for serial production as well as integration into the Iter project."

The Russian gyrotrons have a frequency of 170 GHz at a power of 1 MWe and a pulse length of up to 1000 seconds.

Iter is a global collaboration to build the largest experimental fusion facility. Europe will contribute almost half of the costs of its construction, while the other six members - China, India, Japan, Korea, Russia and the USA - will contribute equally to the rest.

Russian companies were also contracted to supply conductors for use in the magnetic system of the Iter reactor. Rosatom said last September that the D V Efremov Scientific Research Institute of Electrophysical Apparatus had completed the joint manufacture with Russia's European Iter partners of the first two unit lengths of the superconductor for the PF1 coil of Iter's magnet system. Russia is responsible for manufacturing two copper dummies, one superconducting dummy, nine superconducting unit lengths for the PF6 coil, and 17 unit superconducting lengths for the PF1 coil.